By Kevin Seabrooke

On “Black Sunday,” (August 1, 1943) 178 B-24 Liberators flew from Benghazi, Libya, on a daring daylight raid on Germany’s oil refineries in Ploiești, Romania—losing 53 planes, with 660 airmen killed or captured.

After the death of her mother, Polley Cress, the author found a footlocker full of letters from and to both her father, Bob Cress and her uncle, John B. White. Both left Hillsboro, Illinois, to join the U.S. Army Air Corps as navigators on B-24 bombers and flew multiple combat missions.

John was shot down and became a POW in Romania, those letters home to Polley becoming the only record of his survival. On May 31, 1944, Bob was also shot down, during a high-altitude bombing raid over Ploesti. Bob came home, John did not—but their letters tell a story of love, friendship, tragedy and the war that engulfed the world.

The Navigator’s Letter: The True Story of Two WWII Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and the Woman Who Bound Them Together ((Jan Cress Dondi, Union Square & Co., New York, NY, 400 pp., 2026 $32.50 HC)